The State of the Market

Since 1905 it has been our mission, and our passion, to produce leather of the finest quality possible. This is a commitment that we put into practice in our operations on a daily basis.
Just when it seemed as though we had seen it all in the leather industry, a new challenge has presented itself. Hide prices have now reached historical highs. Admittedly, this is not a good situation for anyone. While we have all managed to move beyond the troubled economy of a few years ago and started to see encouraging signs of recovery, this is the type of obstacle that can potentially derail those efforts.

The challenge is that people expect fixed price commitments, and we respect and understand that. Hides represent the single largest component in the cost of a piece of finished leather. The reality is that with hide price increases of this magnitude there must also be movements in leather prices to reflect these changes. Accordingly, leather orders that are not covered by existing blanket orders will be priced at the date of the sale to reflect the present days market. It is our fondest hope that the market will regain some sanity. As hide prices come down, as they most certainly will, we will gladly deliver the good news about price decreases on our finished leather.

All of us here at Horween welcome the opportunity to discuss this, and we will continue to make it our commitment to work together to find solutions that are mutually acceptable.